Killer Notebooks

has anyone dealt with this company? are they any good? if my m860tu does not turn out on time, i may go with the 5793laptop instead. the custom paints that they do look very nice and dont cost much. (i like the engraving they do)

 

They seem like a good company in terms of resellerratings.com, but their prices are not very competitive, and you are kind of forced to get the notebook with a specific configuration, like for the Executioner you can only get a T9500.

 

theriko and ogun have KN notebooks. Their systems have improved heatsinks and from the looks of it, are pretty much the top performing Clevo variants.

 

I will cover KN in the the new Clevo Guide 2.0

 

any idea when that guide'll come out?

Im trynig to decide between getting the m860tu or the refreshed thinkpad line, and a guide may help me understand clevo better

 

good to know. let me know when your done. im sure it will make a good read.

 

would anyone know why they show this laptop as being over 9lbs even though everyone else has it at 8.1lbs

 

i am skeptical about them using different heatsinks?? i still have yet to see pictures of them and imo i dont know that i believe they are any different than the normal extreme ones

 

i like how they make fu of all the other competing brands and how they sold out leaving only them as a stand alon boutique laptop company.

 

There were pictures of it, and it was a pretty debated subject.
Trust me on this, Mark@KN DOES do modded heatsinks which seem to work better than stock ones.
Check out www.guruofgaming.com for more details...

 

It should go live this week.

 

why is it that all the reviews that i have read that refer to a rep is one person. a certain mark. this buisness seems a little big for one person, or maybe its just a coincidence.

 

It is pretty much a one man show...Mark Mueller is the owner of KN and he is the guy you will be dealing with if you purchase one of his systems.

As eleron said, he DOES do heatsink mods, here is a link to his page about them.

He is a great guy to deal with and is very amenable to whatever needs you have. For example, I originally bought an executioner with a, x7800 and 7950gtx in it. When the 8800 was released he cross shipped me a new one with 8800, x9000 and 2GB more ram for pretty much the upgrade price so that I wouldn't be without a laptop for any time at all. (This is before the "5791/2 can accept 8800's" stuff - but I did other upgrades anyway so I don't care about that bit).

I have nothing but good things to say about KN and if anyone has any questions, please do ask.

 

How noisy are your fans w.o the firmware upgrade?

 

I went to their site (they really like Japan/Swords Custom huh), and wonder will they received the m860TU? Its great if they could though....

 

i would immagine HE will.

 

@Vedya - I didn't have any problems with them although they were still ramping.

@ terek - go to the about us -> contact and ask Mark if he's getting the M860TU, I'm sure he'll be happy to help you out

 

Yea, theriko, Vedya`s question is what was bugging me too for a while now.
How are the fans , could you upload a video?Maybe your improved heatsink can lower temps betterand reduce the need for a fan...

 

Well I cant upload a video as I don't have a video camera but I am sitting here browsing the internet with quite a few background apps running (Steam, Messenger, Skype, uTorrent, Kaspersky, Setpoint, ultramon, Creative audio panel, epson printer stuff, etc...nothing intensive) and an external monitor as well and my 8800 is idling at 600/1500/900 (Powermizer doesn't seem to work with these drivers/bios/something) at 49C and the CPU ([email protected]) is idling at 39C. My seagate 200GB 7200RPM HDD is at 45C and I can hardly hear the fans

 

I have the same impression , but trust me, once you focus on the noise you always will know it`s there...

 

Oh I know it's there, I just don't notice it...If that makes sense...

 

It does, especially if you`re the one that uses the laptop.
For the rest of the people, it`s a noisy machine. I was trying to figure out just how noisy it is compared to standard RUs.

 

Well, if you're ever in southampton, you're welcome to come round and have a listen

 

It can`t be much of a big difference from mine, that`s what I`m saying.
Oh well, I guess your temps are good due to the heatsink thing

 

I wouldn't expect it to be much of a difference, but i'll take any few degrees off I can get

 

The killer customization on the killer notebooks (lol?) really impressed me... but the prices scared me off...

 

I've read some of Marks posts. (The owner of KN) To me he seems to be the Billy Mitchell of notebook resellers, or the Derek Smart if you prefer.

 

what is that supposed to mean?

 

I assume you mean this Billy Mitchell and not this Billy Mitchell, since the former is more like this Derek Smart than is the latter.

 

or this Billy Mitchell lol

 

????????????

 

I've got an older Killernotebook (m570u). Nothing but good things to say about them. Mines been flawless for almost 2 years. It's been overclocked nearly it's whole life. Nothing has failed, nothing has ever gone wrong. I'll be buying my next rig from him.. but my current rig isn't exactly struggling so it may be awhile.

No one has mentioned his latest offering: Turbo button on the Clevo.. fsb and multiplier overclock (or underclock) stock on his rigs via a custom bios and software.

 

God bless the wonders of wikipedia and the internet!

 

yeah i saw that too. nice feature. didnt Asus do something similar with an old laptop? i think it was the C90 or something like that.

 

The Turbo button is something you can see on specific MSI laptops(OC the CPU via a button).
Nice, Mark is really outdoing himself on this one.

 

+1 Nail on the head

 

Just a few (said with some sarcasm, ie "few" with index and middle fingers doing bunny ear motions) details to toss into this discussion. I'm sure I might get flamed by a fanboy or something for pointing stuff like this out... but... I've done some exploring and am a little concerned about the business in question. It's long, but it's not all me talking, lots of quoting stuff that is interesting, almost all (except personal correspondence with them) that you can find yourself if you so choose...

Anyone ever notice on guruofgaming that... oh, Mark happens to be user#4 for the whole site... hmm, he just happened to sign on that very first moment, huh?

User 1... doesn't exist... of users 2-10, 11, 12... at 16 now, just for fun, anyway, almost all=likely bogus accounts or "I was told to join so here, I joined or something"... because hey, they have never posted or... posted once or twice and never again since 2006...

The only other one of the very-early-users (along with most of the users, most of the posts, etc) that has been supposedly quite active... well, threads like "prospective buyers READ THiS" kind of like our "read this before posting" FAQ... ooh, what does the active one say? The one that... well, just happened to sign on right at the same time as Mark... conveniently... "I thank my lucky stars to have found Killer Notebooks when I did.
The Executioner exceeded my expectations and they were pretty high up there. Mark has definitely raised the bar.
I've been spoiled ..." OMFG how transparent is this?

next thread? K|N website:
"How about a video on the site?

I just want to see a picture! Mark, it is picture time! Just one.
Yes, it is a little painful at first but you can do it.
How can your groupies (me) swoon and stalk ..."

next, oh, a problem arises and someone (one of many someones, I've noticed) isn't getting calls answered or returned... not until they go to guruforgaming, where obviously, this pimpmykillernotebook site is the way to get the service, oftentimes with loads of interesting excuses, I'm finding, for why the calls didn't go through... anyway, fanboy's response?

"Yeah, there has to be some sort of e-mail issue going on. Mark is usually pretty fast to respond to e-mails.
So make sure you check that junk mail and your filters like FirebornX suggested."

Then talk of a K|N wikipedia...

and more praise for the site...

and "Nope, no PS3 for me....yet.
It has been quite awhile since I bought a console.
My gaming time has dwindled. Crying or Very sad

I bought a crazy gaming notebook instead.
You may have heard of it....the ... EXECUTIONER" with flamboyant dancing reeking in the posts...

next discussion, alienware or killer?
"ODACHI, huh?
I think it is time for a new toy! heehee

I am just trying to get all these new systems up

Mark, quit tempting me with your badass notebooks.
A few more and i'll be in the poor house..."

Basically it's a site that truly seems to have been designed to pump K|N... and I love how in "improving air flow" ... um, I saw photos... the improvement? Drill more holes into the case. Oh, that's innovation. Granted, you drill where it's super hot, but no one is at all concerned about all the gunk that can get in a case when it's been hole punched all over? It's just very weird that a 17" case is... vented in such a non-traditional way. Not a bad thing, just... did Clevo screw up so bad? He claims that the designers at Clevo never actually use the thing and therefore put vents ... all over the place, including the underside (where he put more holes). The logic between squees of fankids sort of got lost. He even insulted his own ODM... oofah.

Incidentally, a more recent thread on there references "ANOTHER K|N FIRST!" with him claiming he was the first to offer a dual core, a core 2 duo, a santa rosa platform, and a quad core notebook (of anyone, ever in the whole world)... so he posts this major new first... gets people excited... then says "oh, it doesn't work on Santa Rosa, bummer" and people are still asking when it will get released and will it work... and he has to be kinda subdued (for him) and mention it's not gonna happen, that "Intel burned us again" lol!!! I feel burned, man. I'm not even in Black Rock City yet, though.

There's more to this story... the browsing of guruforgaming (that K|N links to religiously) was actually secondary to me researching ALL the clevo retailers for my own little self this last week with the new releases. Interesting changes from old patterns...

I actually had contacted K|N (and others, too) about various differences in the configs, in prices... in his case, I stuck to the main killer difference: WHY THE HUGE PRICE DIFF for the basics? Sure, overclocking, huge wow, but cmon, plenty of people are looking for just a LITTLE edge over xotic, perhaps, not a $1500 edge (and I'm not talking customization stuff, which I gave full credit for, I'm just talking parts with his potentially better cooling method that I can actually mod my case to do, too, if I really want... but nah, I don't feel like messing with hardware when it's not needed, especially if I needed the SAGER warranty on the 2nd year (since his warranty runs out after year 1 when the parts AND labor get paid for)... what are they going to do when they see my hole punch project? Maybe nothing... but it might just void something, too, to make something so killer. Apparently, it's not all roses with hardware since things like DVD drives aren't Sagers therefore aren't covered... hmm, kinda makes me think HP's 8710 isn't such a bad compromise. Alienware will still be there in a year... will K|N?

OK, so for the real part of my post...

I contacted K|N, got THE NASTIEST response I've EVER heard from a retailer, basically just pissing all over all the competition then saying I was entirely wrong in quoting these parts because I guess his machines weren't, on a Friday night when maybe he had a little post-Call-of-Duty testosterone angst or maybe he's a mean drunk for all I know... it was flat out mean, and I told him so... AFTER THE SECOND MESSAGE WAS SENT TO ME. I actually just pondered posting the messages here (not sure that's cool with the moderators, though?) and letting people have a look at the customer service response (mind you, I've got a couple generations of computer and mechanical engineers in my family, and I've been doing PC hardware grunt work since I was 14 years old, a long while back since I'm over twice that age now)...

Letter 1 was hate-filled and mixing up the new models, too...

Letter 2? A huge thank you note for evaluating their pricing schedule and also some vagueness on the website about models, prices, parts, etc.

They claimed they changed the price and that they are now only, though theirs is decked out with huge drives and the custom heatsink and cooler and the free shipping and all that... only $355 more than xoticpc.com...

So I somewhat excitedly go to their site and am still looking at $3600+... hmm, where's that compromise again? I don't even remember putting together a system that was $3250+ at xotic, but... maybe I was being too conservative when I managed to get something pretty gorgeous at a price point of $2100-2300 (though it is just a boring old Sager, "the only competitor to him as no one else builds them?" ...)

ugh.

Let's just say... despite the attempts at warm fuzzies, including saying they should hire me as their consultant (they can't afford my kind of precision, I'm afraid, or my digging into every dirty inch methods)... I did mention that the honey catches flies more easily than the vinegar... but also that calling powernotebooks (apparently for the 20th time, every time to himself and the mysterious vendors that all agree with him) powerweasels? Really... let's be adult... 1300+ ratings and downright beautiful scores? Someone is doing something right, like... helping people here, being INFORMED about their own technology (for crying out loud, that was kind of an insult to see me knowing more than the custom guru)...

another random detail on that forum that is tangenting... fake numbers. Bloated post counts so that they don't make his hundreds of posts seem like the big fat thumb sticking out that they are... they claimed someone had 76 posts... try 15... another had 42 or so... nope, 6. Again, yuck!

Someone sure feels like a weasel, and he's not known as a paladin...



Oh, and you can thank ME that he's gonna carry the new 15.4"... he said so himself... that it was because I convinced him to, cause before, he wasn't going to make them. I told him to take his meds more regularly. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde isn't one of my favorite stories with respect to which ones I'd prefer my encounters to mirror. I'll stick with the Montoyas and inconceivable Wesleys of the world if I'm gonna find a hero.

Just my experience. Sorry for so much length, but it's been an intriguing time getting executed. (By someone who has a banner with "testamonials" instead of testimonals... eh, I'm a perfectionist. Spell checking is just too easy to let stuff like that go to print... worse, go to photoshop AND print. oofah.

I do not actually doubt the quality of the builds being good or even the cases looking cool if that's someone's big draw... that's not what I'm questioning. I do, though, doubt the character's own shadiness. I'll go with my gut and say a big fat "pass" and stick to people who don't feel a desperate need to attack everyone in a totally uncivilized manner... people have their beefs left and right, but everyone has to have the humility to step back and remember they aren't gods in the REAL world. Oh, and according to this dude and all his personalities, Justin and Don and all the other retailers are working VERY HARD here at notebookreview.com to make sure ALL posts about K|N are removed unless derogatory... cause they are scared of the real quality, oh yes.

I also doubt that there's a $1500 difference in value between these systems for 99% of users, but by saying it's only a select few, that of course creates hype that you have to really want it, yearn, and moreover in some cases, tell mom and dad that nothing will run on ANYTHING BUT that system. Yeah, I know plenty of teenagers. They can be despicable with their manipulations


Random mention about the Clevo Guide: apocalypse's site has a weird username and password requirement, and what the site "says" to you is not seemingly a hint to get in... Jinco and... one other... don't appear to sell Clevo stuff anymore... one was security hardware, another was random household stuff when I checked....and I can't remember the other issue, but it was fairly minor--I was just going through them all, seeing what the new price points are for the popular builds. Probably doesn't matter since they seem to have dropped dead, but Apocalypse also has a different supposed site (that doesn't work at all) acc. to resellerratings or one of those review sites mentioned. something like apocalypsecs.com?

 

Sounds like Wu Jen was spot on with the references to Billy Mitchell and Derek Smart.

 

I just now got around to reading who those guys were... I'm going with Derek Smart based on this Wiki statement: "Smart is renowned for lengthy and aggressive online responses to perceived criticism." Didn't see anything about ego stroking on Billy Mitchell's page, but I admittedly took about 4 blinks to it before closing it. I could have missed a critical detail of his Dweebus Maximus development.

Ironically enough, for all his gaming, the OTHER Billy Mitchell (not the other other one) is more likely to be used for a character in a massive, awesome game, should it be a battle-oriented one, which I think has more promise than Steve Erkelthons except in DDR... the game DDR, I mean. We need more letters ... no, just less acronyms.

 

what the hell was that nallukka? some of those sentences just ran into one another and bogled me.
marks stuff are expensive, but they really are custom and taken tare of one by one. dont know anything more than that.

 

Eleron,

A quick story:
After 4 months of ownership of my Executioner Srx, I took advantage of a visit to the US to send my notebook to Mark for some CPU updating wanting to swap my 9500 Penryn for an Extreme.
He kept it 3 weeks, dissuaded me from making the swap, found that my temps and performance were not quite up to his standards and returned it to me with new 9500 Penryn, new 8800GTX, re-modded cooling and turbo boost button at no cost to me.

the upshoots of these updates are temps as follow: CPU 39-42C (upperlimit observed 45C while gaming) GPU temp 38C and 46C while gaming.
3D06 scores, my original complaint became as seen here: http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg64/ogun228/3DTurbo.jpg
and here: http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg64/ogun228/3D06jun13.jpg

Part of the mods can be seen here: http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg64/ogun228/P1030114.jpg

My observation is that with the turbo boost on, I run the CPU at 2.97 and with utmost stability. Temps barely rise.

My only cost was the shipping via FedEx one way.

I am so far a very satisfied customer. Yes Killer notebooks cost more as they are practically bespoke. But as they say in New York:"you gets what you pays for"

ogun

 

Hey, I'm not the fankid (or self-flattering hypemaster, maybe) that posted the posts on there... my statements are in between the " "s explaining how that particular forum developed--over half the posts being by the owner of KN=NOT an unbiased review site for it, that's all...

Like I said, I don't doubt that it is quality parts, though I do doubt the quality service after seeing so many posts that mention over and over how he wasn't answering calls, emails, etc.

Incidentally, in asking what happened between reply 1 and 2 (the spew and the sucking up)... that got ignored... at least, though, he'd be fast getting a system out, it seems... the one perk to being a small tight operation, though the price is a huge downfall for me, still, possibly because I can take a barebones system and do that same stuff to it for less (I just don't feel like dealing with different mfg warranties for each part if one should die).

Both KN AND the guru fankids have serious issues with the English language. Having taught composition at a college level, I can safely assure you ... the run-ons are not my original writing. I could italicize or bold out stuff if it would make it easier. Could have indented, I guess, but I just copied and pasted.